LATE SUMMER HATCHES ON LOWER RIVERS/MUSKEGON

(Steno Cahill hatches will appear in the evening on lower river segments starting now thru October and the trout are all over them!- JGMiller mayfly images)

(Tiny bwos- Pseudocloeon #24 starting now thru November-blizzard super hatches in September and October-- Tricos am- Some Isonychia on cool nights, flying ants and next post- upper river caddis and midge hatches)

Get out and enjoy- with cool nights and days-mild summer!- long leaders/6-7x- ultra fussy trout!

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Posted in: Blue winged olives , cahills , flying ants , gray drake lodge , michigan fly fishing , muskegon fly fishing , Muskegon hatches , tricos

SEPTEMBER ...OUR FAVORITE MONTH FOR DRY FLY TROUT ON THE MUSKEGON!

( In the lower river , Stenos and Heptagenia hebe, along with tiny bwo's-pseudos occur each evening and the trout are on them big time! J miller image)

 

 

 

 

( the upper river below the dam is becoming a diptera infested midge fishery with trout gorging on the zillions of midges at dark-shine a light! J Pierson image)

 

 

While everyone is chasing salmon up north, for 22 years now since in MI I patiently watch each month slip by each year and cant wait for September on the Mo- a dry fly paradise for head hunter fanatics like myself and others. Waters have cooled and the rain we have had has given us great flows and cold nights and cool days are in the forecast for the next couple weeks. The browns and rainbows have had a great cool summer except for a week or two and are fat and healthy packing on the weight from summers crayfish and are now targeting caddis, mayflies , midges and flying ants- a cornucopia of top water prey. Have the river to yourself during the week and come and experience dry fly fishing at its finest!

( Rex with a donkey brown taken in September on the Mo on a tiny scud)

If I died and went to heaven I would want to be on the Muskegon  or in the Catskills in September when the long leaders, fine tippets, tiny flies and the Selective/reflective trout are dancing on the surface with compound and complex rises and giving you many refusals and flipping you the bird!-love it- paradise found!

(the Muskegon's trout get very fat consuming hundreds of caddis puape and adults each night in the upper river and stenos/hepte's and bwo's in the lower)

(flying ants from size #14-22 browns just started)

( and don't forget the fall Isonychias that just started up also-maily lower river)

 

CHEERS!

 

 

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Posted in: Blue winged olives , cahills , dry fly , gray drake lodge , midges , Muskegon hatches , selective trout , super caddis hatches , trout and eagle

Summer Steelhead and Tricos

( Chris Bamford from Akron with a round 20 buck)

Yes we actually saw a smaller summer run sipping tricos the other day...very cool! The amazing summer run of 2013 continues!

( the Mysis Procopius)

On the Muskegon, caddis in the upper river and blue -winged olives and Cahill's in the lower river...trout are on them

And from Iceland's Stora Laxa where the Atlantic run has been amazing ,Arni Baldurson shares his gorgeous dogs!

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Posted in: Blue winged olives , cahills , gray drake lodge , Great Lakes summer steelhead , muskegon river fly fishing , summer skamania steelhead , tricos , trout and eagle lodge

"GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY CAHILLS!"......AND THE MAGIC OF FOG AND SELECTIVE BROWN TROUT

( Dr. Jim Gray- "the Gray Drake doctor" with a fog loving brownie who was a steno connoisseur!)

Last night was a lesson and a remembrance. A hot sweltering Saturday on the Muskegon is the onslaught of the drunken/drug wacked tuber hatch and all the adept kayakers and canoers that don't know how to use paddles...lol . But thank God for impending thunder/lighting storms and most went off scurrying. By 6 pm my clients, Dr. Jim Gray from Ohio and his medical team of associates and sons were up for the challenge and loved dry fly trout fishing. We told them the bad weather was good...sort of!
The weather would probably knock out gray drake action and Isonychia which are very barometric sensitive emergers, but there is one "daily bread' insect that actually loves the bad weather............Stenonema Ithaca...The Catskill White Cahill. Named after the Catskill railroader brakeman Dan Cahill, who it is claimed responsible for the spilling of wild rainbows at Calicoon creek in the Delaware system, this hearty clinging nymphs like the fast runs and riffle/boulder/gravel pocket water to gestate, then migrating to slower runs to hatch. Their emerging nymphs and duns float for considerable distances and extremely relished by the trout.
 Rarely do they create super- hatches...rather they are sporadic emergers that come off, one-by-one all day and from May till October on all Midwest and Eastern freestoners and tail water rivers. They are as white as snow and will catch the eye of even a blind fly fisher and sparrow.
A river "dean" fly fisher of the Muskegon once told me ,'trout don't eat those bugs, they must not taste good!".....BUNK AND BULL!.....trout gorge on their fatty little nymphs, emergers and adults and there bellies are packed with them!!!

( Steno Cahill adult images -top and bottom by the trout sage of the Delaware- Dr. Johnny"bugsy" Miller. In the middle are my cahill soft hackle PT emerger, the emergering Cahill with brown z-lon shucked body and CDC for the emerging adult, and then a true adult pattern....lethal wherever you  steno Ithaca)

 Similar to a trout on a spring creek eating scuds and sowbugs as their bread-and butter staple, so too are the steno Cahills. They also like to hatch on cloudy rainy days like Saturday...even with storms. I've only seen one super-hatch spinner fall of these insects on the Muskegon in 2009, early June on that very cold spring when white clouds of spinners were all over the riffles from the Gray Drake to Mafia House run....it was an amazing sight!
Some of the best Cahill hatches and large browns rising I've experienced was in August and September in the lower Muskegon near Bigalow when every dun and emerger was slurped up by big fat browns and rainbows.

( Steno nymph water- fast oxygenated, boulder/gravel - target the slower water below these areas for emergence)

When the fog rolled in last night before dusk, the trout went crazy for the stenos. You could barely see, but Dr. Jim let his emerger and soft hackle nymph dropper float right into a less cautious 20 inch plus brown that jumped 3 feet in the air when hooked on 6x tippet ...we had to drop and chase with anchor up to land this surprised fierce fighter. I've fished that run all spring and didn't know that hog was there till the fog made it a comfortable player.
 I recall several dense fog days on the Catskill Delaware on the ultra- selective trout water of the main stem at Baird/Parker pool. A foggy, drizzle afternoon turned selective fish into easy targets as wave after wave of blue-winged-olives got gulped up by the most selective risers....it was a day of dry fly action I will never forget. Last night had all the makings of it but darkness and zero visibility came quick.
Also, the dense air of fog makes hampers mayfly emergence and flight, thus many adults float for great distances making them very vulnerable to the trout that feed in the negative phototropic conditions similar to night.
Morale of the blog!: when a dense fog warning is in the weather forecast...head out to your trout stream fast....drive slowly!

( Mr. Dombrowski- the Polish wonder kicker for the Harvard Univ. football team with a summer hog from last August- several dozen fish were taken on that first cool fresh run of suicidal "bulls in a china shop" fish that destroyed the purple haze leech!)

SUMMER STEELHEAD UPDATE:......Good numbers have begun to show up around the piers and a few have started to ascend the rivers. This year will be an amazing year if weather conditions are favorable since stocking numbers are at a peak from 3-4 years ago. The St. Joseph and Indiana tributaries should produce some gargantuan fish up to 20 lbs like last year. We are booking at a good pace and still have a few openings in prime July/August time....these fish are truly amazing!!!!...they are the tarpon of the Great Lakes

NOTE: NEXT BLOG WE WILL TALK ABOUT THE GIANT POTAMANTHUS YELLOW DRAKE MAYFLY- A JULY/AUGUST HATCH!

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Posted in: brown trout , cahills , Delaware , fog and fly fishing , gray drake lodge , michigan fly fishing , muskegon trout steelhead , selective trout , stenonema hatch , summer skamania steelhead , trout and eagle

RAVENOUS BROWN TROUT......ISONYCHIAS, DRAKES AND MONSTER STONE FLIES THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT!

( Shawn with her third nice brown on the Isonychia hatch that evening)

It has been our best week of dry fly action this year....perhaps best in years! Hot weather started the week with Hexagenia hatches on the P.M.,,......then winter showed up! Air temperatures plummeted into the 40's,50's and 60's....lots of much needed rain and the bugs went crazy. It started Thursday chasing big brownies on the Pere Marquette with Mike Batcke- the Pteronarcys king-that's big stone flies, that look like dobson flies. June is their prime emergence and big browns lurk in the dark waiting for them to hatch all night.

( Steelie Ian- a trout bum comes home!)

Friday with air temps in the 40's, I guided Ian from Idaho, a true steelhead two hander junkie that fishes all over the west coast and used to work for Al Caucci on the Delaware...he is a true trout bum and bug guy- he loves Isonychia hatches. And whadda ya know...the night he shows up the Iso hatch goes crazy with the 45 degree air temps, overcast and drizzle.

( Swarms of gray drakes and Iso's early)

( isonychia)

(sulpher emerging from pheasant tail shuck nymph....a PT dropper or brown z-lon shuck is important)

( Giant Hexagenia and J:SON SWEDEN'S FLIES that are great large may fly imitations- float like a cork!)

Saturday saw the Murphys and Anton from Slovakia with Jeff Bacon. We witnessed more Isonychias, cahill stenos, olives, sulphers, caddis and yes....FINALLY GRAY DRAKES IN MASSIVE NUMBERS!

  Just when I thought 'ld never see drakes again, they showed up as river levels came up and temperatures dropped. Massive spinner flights and few couplings happened early cause of the cold temps.
NOTE: Increases in flow, a very cool front after a brief sunny heat spell and steady low barometric changes are preferred by mayflies,stoneflies and caddis hatches on tailwater and freestone rivers.

( My new ISO CRACK- I concocted on Saturday- a wiggle deadly affair)

( Nice P.M. brown with Mike on a giant Ken Morrish Ptyeronarcys stone on the surface)

( the awesome red dots of a true German wild brownie from the P.M.)

( Roman Moser from Austria and his 3-D Plush Sculpins- deadly on big trout!)

We hit some very nice browns...including some nice 16-18 ich fat plump Eagle Lake rainbows....some of the best fishing in years. June continues cool and seasonal....perfect for more hatch activity.

( The Murph Dog comes out slinging!)

The fish are very fat and extremely healthy from the massive food supply of the Muskegon:.....sucker and steelhead spawn hangover, chinook salmon parr and steelhead fry, the massive bug factory- including micro caddis by the  gazillions. The trout have it made!
 WATER: 2450 CFS-temp- 59-60F.......PERFECTO!

( The woods are alive- a great image taken by Melanie Morrett from Lexingtin, KY- her and her husband - both great casters and trout nuts- especially spring creeks- guided with me last Thursday- she is doing a a magnificent water color of the famed Letort for Selectivity- she is an artist with tons of talent!)

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Posted in: brown trout , caddis , cahills , Eagle Lake Rainbows , gray drake , isonychia , michigan fly fishing , trout and eagle

IT WAS A MARVELOUS NIGHT FOR A MAYFLY!

It is amazing how mayflies pick the most ideal evenings to emerge. Last night was prefect! Cool sunny weather,low warm sun-low 70's-upper 60's, high pressure little wind .....and WHAM........everybug was popping early and every fish was on top chowing down! Two types of olives-Drunella and Baetis- sulphers(dorothea), cahills and tons of Isos. Literally the river came alive early(7 ish) and drakes were around by 8 pm -then as the cold came in at dusk- it shut down as fast as it started. My clients the Scweikerts from Belgium got two fat browns and one hog rainbow in the 18-19 inch range- plus tons of fat stockers pushing 11 inches. It was the best activity I've seen all spring and the best conditions with it!

Looks like NOAA was right on their extended June thru August forecast-cold and wet- and that is what we are getting........AWESOME STUFF IF YOU'RE A MAYFLY OR TROUT!!!

River at a very nice slightly up but very clear 2300 cfs- more rain coming tonight. Where was this shit a month ago when we were drying up and sweltering like the Sahara desert!

But remember, one stretch of water could be blank- around the corner you have bugs- that's the Mo!

The size of the drakes have been very big this year- not in numbers though-that is just until now-it has been a bizarre spring so far- hot/cold-dry/wet........the bugs and the fish are confused, along with me!(three types of drakes-Quebencencus,Alternatus, and rapidus)

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Posted in: cahills , gray drake , isonychia , sulphers , trout eagle lodge and outfitters